› added 1 year ago

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TIL in 1990 an 8 year old girl with cerebral palsy named Jennifer Keelan left her wheelchair and crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building to urge Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act which had been stalled in committee. It was signed into law a few months later.

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M7Ea TIL Nokia made a handheld game console in 2003, the N-Gage. In the first two weeks, Nokia claimed to have sold 400,000 units, but researchers later found they had only actually sold 5,800~ units in total.
LkO7Q TIL Japanese Honeybees defend themselves against wasps by swarming them and "baking" them by vibrating their wings to 47 degrees Celsius. One degree above the wasp's max temperature.
EZ9V TIL Student tuition at Ivy League schools is essentially “Pay what you can,” and free for students whose families make less than $60K/year; the difference is funded by an endowment of donations.
yVkBV TIL in 1714, a Norwegian captain and an English captain had a 14-hour long ship fight. Afterwards, both ships were badly damaged and the Norwegian captain was running out of ammo. He sent an envoy to the English ship, asking if he could borrow some of their ammo. They said no.
e0Wa6 TIL about the Pareto Principle [80/20 Rule] 80% of results come from 20% of causes. The interesting thing is that it is present in almost everything. 80% of rainfall comes from 20% of cloud types. 80% of people crash their car because of 20% of causes. Simulation is hard-coded.